Let us all ring Fancy's knell.
I'll begin it--ding, dong, bell.
"Merchant of Venice."


If this be true, it is of importance to decide what our children shall
look upon as far as we can control the vision, so that we can form
some idea of the effect upon their imagination.

Having alluded to the dangerous influence of the street, I should
hasten to say that this influence is very far from being altogether
bad. There are possibilities of romance in street life which may have
just the same kind of effect on children as the telling of exciting
stories. I am indebted to Mrs. Arnold Glover, Honorary Secretary of
the National Organization of Girls' Clubs,[36] one of the most widely
informed people on this subject, for the two following experiences
gathered from the streets and which bear indirectly on the subject of
story-telling:

Mrs. Glover was visiting a sick woman in a very poor neighborhood, and
found, sitting on the door-step of the house, two little children,
holding something tightly grasped in their little hands, and gazing
with much expectancy towards the top of the street. She longed to
know what they were doing, but not being one of those unimaginative
and tactless folk who rush headlong into the mysteries of children's
doings, she passed them at first in silence. It was only when she
found them still in the same silent and expectant posture half an hour
later that she said tentatively: "I wonder whether you would tell me
what you are doing here?" After some hesitation, one of them said, in
a shy voice: "We're waitin' for the barrer." It then transpired